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<div style="line-break:after-white-space">What is Arun Kolatkar’s reading of Janamejaya’s snake sacrifice and the burning of the Khandava forest, as depicted in the poem, Sarpa Satra (2004)? If the poem describes the snake sacrifice as “cynical,” a “mockery”,
and a “grotesque parody” of a yajna, what would constitute a true, proper yajna? Why does Jaratkaru advise Astika to stop the sacrifice, not for the sake of the Nagas, but to save “the last vestige of humanity”? In addressing these questions, I will argue
that although Sarpa Satra seems to present an anthropocentric understanding of dharma (in which human beings should live and let other species live), there are materials in the poem that suggest the contours of a non-anthropocentric vision of dharma (as that
which sustains and promotes all life and the earth), an ideal that is more fully developed in the critical edition of the Mahabharata.<br>
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Prof. Brian Collins</div>
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(He/Him/His)<br>
Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy<br>
Department of Classics and Religious Studies<br>
234 Ellis Hall<br>
Ohio University<br>
Athens, Ohio</div>
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740-597-2103 (office)<br>
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